Lessons in division and unity: the Weimar Republic as a historical case of pernicious polarization and the collapse of democratic trust

Benedek, István (2026) Lessons in division and unity: the Weimar Republic as a historical case of pernicious polarization and the collapse of democratic trust. JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE. ISSN 2573-9638

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Abstract

This article revisits the collapse of the Weimar Republic through contemporary polarization theory. It does not offer a new archival explanation but uses a well-studied historical case to clarify how ideological and affective divisions can escalate into pernicious polarization and the collapse of democratic trust. The argument is that Weimar was not doomed by polarization alone. Social-moral cleavages, segmented publics, economic anxieties, political violence and status fears became democratically destructive when political actors transformed them into antagonistic camps that increasingly ceased to recognize opponents as legitimate participants in a shared political order. The article makes three contributions. First, it clarifies the relationship between ideological, affective, pernicious and democratic polarization. Second, it interprets the Nazi promise of Volksgemeinschaft as a strategy of exclusionary unity: National Socialism did not overcome polarization but reorganized it by redefining the political community against internal enemies. Third, it differentiates the mechanisms through which Nazi anti-pluralist mobilization, Communist sectarianism and conservative institutional bypass eroded mutual toleration, institutional restraint, coalition-building and the legitimacy of opposition. The Weimar case illuminates how democratic breakdown becomes more likely when political conflict loses the capacities that make it democratic.

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